WiiConnect24: Ensuring Vampirism

One of Nintendo's biggest accomplishments with the new Nintendo Wii is its extremely low power consumption. During gameplay, the device uses only 17 watts, less electricity than a compact fluorescent light bulb (not including the display.) The Wii uses at least ten times less power than either the PS3 or the Xbox 360.

However, the Wii has been marketed along with an online service from Nintendo called WiiConnect24. This service encourages users to keep their Wii's on all the time, while delivering them services like free games, firmware updates, news, and some social networking. The problem is that WiiConnect24 prevents the Wii from having a true power-save standby, and keeps the device on all the time. Initial reports show the Wii using about 10 watts of power in standby mode, five times that of the XBOX 360 and ten times EU recommendations.The only solution, of course, is to unplug your Wii at the source, thus not making as much use of the WiiConnect24 service. Not since the first generation of gaming systems has there been such an efficient in-home system. After all that work to ensure plenty of performance without a lot of power, WiiConnect24 seems like a short-sighted move by Nintendo.